Under the Shade of the Tree of Life
The alien-looking baobab tree of Africa, Australia, and Madagascar is sometimes referred to as "the tree of life" because it provides shelter, clothing, food, and water for both man and animal. The bloated trunk of the tree can store thousands of gallons of water in its spongy, fibrous wood during the rainy season, which it then uses during the subsequent dry period.
The tree produces a fruit called "monkey bread," which contains more vitamin C than four oranges. Other parts of the tree are useful as well. For example, the pollen can be used as glue, and the oily, protein-packed seeds can be roasted and eaten. Young leaves can be used like spinach and have lots of calcium, while the fibrous trunk can be woven into rope, cloth, mats, and paper. Even the bark can be used to make tea. Older trees are often hollow, providing living space for animals and humans.
Many baobab trees appear to be ancient, dated many thousands of years old. One aged tree in South Africa measures 72 feet high and 155 feet in circumference.
Did you know the Bible mentions that about six thousand years ago, there was a real tree of life here on earth?
Out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden (Genesis 2:9).
What's more, we're also told we will eat from that tree in heaven!
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7, NIV).
Not Overrated
Legendary rock star David Cosby delivered many memorable hits, including the classic, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Part of the lyrics are: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die.”
January 19, 2023, was a time for him to die. Just one day prior, Crosby tweeted a message about heaven. He said, ”I heard the place is overrated….cloudy.”
His snarky comment was in response to another tweet -- a screenshot of a Google search for the phrase, "Can we go to heaven with tattoos?” According to the Twitter user, the top response reads, "People with tattoos will not go to heaven. People who drink alcohol will not go to heaven. People who eat too much pork will also not go to heaven. Short people will not go to heaven."
Certainly, David Crosby has since learned that heaven is not “overrated." He has learned that what St. Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians was true: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” He has learned that someone with tattoos or who drank alcohol or ate too much pork can go to heaven. And, yes, even short people.
Hopefully, in the time between his snarky tweet and his time to die the next day, his heart was made right with His Creator, so that he might now be personally experiencing the joys of Heaven. God alone knows.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, NIV).
No Better Hope Than Heaven
It's called "extreme embalming"--posing the deceased, not in a casket, but sitting or standing up, with the appropriate supports of course. It might be the body of an 18-year-old young man, slumped in an office chair with a PS4 controller in his hand, as if he were playing his favorite game NBA2K--with favorite snacks at hand. Or, a boxer propped up at the far end of a makeshift ring, in his robe and gloves. Or a Southern belle socialite, sitting on a bench in designer clothes, with a feather boa, her hand cradling a champagne flute.
This is how their families wanted to remember them; frozen in a fond memory.
When we lose a heavenly focus, it's natural to cling to the experiences of this life. We look back instead forward. We choose denial of the reality of death over hope in the reality of heaven.
However, if we believe in Jesus who is the Resurrection and the LIfe, and trust Him to pay for the sin which condemns us to mortality, then we can look forward with confidence to something far better than a posed funeral service--to an eternity too wonderful to even imagine!
"But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).